21. 3 The leading reformers — Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin — retained all the dogmas regarding the trinity of persons in the Divine, original sin, the assigning of Christ’s merit to us, and our being justified by faith, in the same past and present form they had had among Roman Catholics. The reformers separated goodwill or good works from that faith, however, and declared that our good works contribute nothing to our salvation, for the purpose of clearly differentiating themselves from Roman Catholics with regard to the essentials of the church, which are faith and goodwill.

22. Brief Analysis

Books on ecclesiastical history make it clear that the four points just mentioned, as they are taught in the Protestant churches today, are not new. They were not invented by these three reformers. Instead, they had come into existence as early as the time of the Council of Nicaea and had been passed down by writers after that; they have been preserved as part of the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.

The reason why Roman Catholics and Protestants agree concerning the trinity of persons in the Divine is that they both recognize the three [ecumenical] creeds in which this concept of a trinity is taught: the Apostles’ Creed; the Nicene Creed; and the Athanasian Creed.

As for the notion that Christ’s merit is assigned to us, the material gathered above in §§3– 8 from the Council of Trent and in §§10– 15 from the Formula of Concord makes it clear that they agree on this point as well.

As for the point about how we are justified, this will now be taken up for further discussion.